Katie_Venra — Tue, 17 Jun 2003 00:36:17 +0000

Hi there

% Tables are tables that are set for a % rate of the whole browser room...

So, you have your site pagein front of you. You place the contect inside a Table that is set for 95%, this means that the site will take up 95% of the browser window and leave a small margin on the right and left

Tables are really handy, especially for larger sites that require formatting

indyjones — Mon, 16 Jun 2003 20:37:34 +0000

You absolutely must lose the fluorescent yellow arrow. Please for the love of god.... make it stoooooop.

Joe Hussar — Mon, 16 Jun 2003 19:25:04 +0000

Hello Katie & thank you too!

I'm not sure that I understand when you say "the use of % tagged tables......etc". What is a % tagged table?

Thks

Joe H.

Katie_Venra — Mon, 16 Jun 2003 18:51:43 +0000

Yup, a lot of information on that page.

It might also be a good idea to maybe try and spread the page out a bit, theres a big white section to the right of the page so it looks like the site has been desinged for a specific resolution.

The use of % tagged tables would mean that you can re-organise the site layout. Have a header part along the top, with the menu along the left hand column. Then use the central part of the site for the information. The 'Important Links' part does look a bit out of place sitting there on the top end of the front page, maybe you can make another page spcifically just for those 'Important Links' and add it to your menu on the left?

The 'Bulletin Board' section as well...i dont know if its your sites latest news snippets or if it actually goes into a real BBS, or Message Board system like this place, it is a bit confusing

There is a lot of good info there though, and going through it made me nip down to the local store and buy loads of chocolate (any excuse will do for me though...rofl) but it does need to be spaces out a bit so there isnt a lot of info on the one page

Joe Hussar — Mon, 16 Jun 2003 15:19:50 +0000

Thank you folks.......good recommendations...I really appreciate it.

Megan — Mon, 16 Jun 2003 13:34:09 +0000

A bit overwhelming, isn't it? What I would do is concentrate on the usability and functionality first and then move on to the technical aspects. Those pictures are very dark - what are other sites that sell these products doing? There's got to be a better way of displaying those. I also expected there to be a way for me to purchase a mold right from it's picture, and I didn't expect that clicking on a picture would take me to a big picture of all of the molds, just more information about the one I clicked on. I might want to know how many different molds are in a sheet, how many candies they make, how big they are etc.

I also think that you should try to pay a bit more attention to the aethetics of things. This is important for several reasons - the users will have a more enjoyable experience, they'll be more likely to remember who you are, and they may be more likely to trust you if your site design looks professional. Remember that a lot of people are leery about entering their credit card information online so it's important to reassure them that you're not crooks.

Skillful use of graphics can help to create a more memorable impression to your visitors. IF you have a good logo, they'll be more likely to remember your name. Also, if you use graphic elements wisely, it can help usability by stressing the most important sections of a site and separating different types of content. Look around at what other sites have done, and pay attention what kind of elemtns they've used and how.

One thing that might be helpful for you is free and cheap website templates. You can get complete website designs that are already finished and ready to go. All you'd have to do is plug in your navigation headings and logo. It migth be a good idea - just be careful to find something that's appropriate for this site. That may be difficult, as many of the templates I've seen are very tech-oriented.

Good luck!

Busy — Sun, 15 Jun 2003 02:49:19 +0000

Welcome to TWF and thanks for reviewing some other sites.
frontpage isn't the best thing to use to make web sites, if you must use an editor try dreamweaver or something.
On to the review ...
the main page has a couple of problems with display in Opera6 and Mozilla, the 'Bulletin Board' section is all over lapping and the counter, tell a friend etc section isn't displaying in opera.
screen shot here (mozilla) and here (opera) but even in IE (displays properly) it looks very messy (to many colors and styles etc). you have used CSS in tags that it shouldn't be in and not use CSS where you should of (instead of font tags etc) take the CSS out of the bulletin board table cell and it will fix it, don;t use CSS margins, borders etc inside of table cell tags as not all browsers fully support this area of CSS
the yellow arrow is very bright, maybe fade it a bit.
the Catalog/index.htm page has a blue background but index has white, try keep all the pages the same theme or ame theme different colour as per topic section
clicking on the 'all occasions' link, again mozilla and opera are overlapping the contents and the images are very dark, try lighten them a little. maybe even have an image of what each mold produces.
I tryed the search on the word 'horse' (as I saw you had horse head molds) I was given 5 results with the page I saw it on but the links don't work, the page it's trying to go to is Catalog/cataloga2.htm but the page it should be going to is Catalog/alloccasionao6.htm
You might want to run your source code through the validater (w3c.org) as frontpage makes a mess of your code.
I can see you spending a lot of time on this site, you should automate a lot of it (use a database) and make your life easier.